ujm

AAQ: I said earlier that throughout history, from ancient times until today, there have always been groups that falsely claimed to be Jewish. There have been real Jewish communities in various parts of the world where they no longer exist. Some places had ancient communities that left long ago and some had communities that lasted much longer but nevertheless left the region in more recent centuries. This is all well documented and uncontroversial.

That there was, at some point in history a Jewish community living in Ethiopia, hundreds of years ago seems very plausible if even likely, yet something of a question that still was raised with a question mark that resulted in various opinions by the rabbinic establishment over more recent centuries.

Yet, even if we accept the premise that there was a Jewish community there half a millennium ago (which is the approximate timeframe of the Radbaz, Benjamin of Tudela, and Eldad HaDani — and even back then it wasn’t a widely or universally accepted opinion), a group that about 500 years later claims to be Jewish but doesn’t have a known or demonstrated lineage to the group that a few opinions referenced hundreds of years prior, doesn’t make them Jewish.

Here’s just a partial list of other groups that also claim to be Jewish, mostly claiming to be from the Ten Lost Tribes:

Igbo Jews (Nigeria) — they’ve been claiming Jewish since the 1500s
“Jews of Rusape”
House of Israel (Ghana)
Black Hebrew Israelites (United States)
Bene Ephraim (India)
Bene Israel (Mumbai, India)
Bnei Menashe (China and India)
Banu Israil (India)
Benei Sión (Chile)
Knanaya
Lemba (Africa)
Yibir (Somalia)
Xueta (Spain)
Rastafari (Jamaica)
Knanaya (India)
Brutakhi

As you can see, there’s a preponderance of these kooks in Africa, especially.

And there are other groups that some claim to be of Jewish descent, including:

Samaritans
Pashtuns
Kurds

Even the Mormons claim to be the Israelites, although that is an entire different category.

Benignuman:

a) What evidential proof exists that the people spoken of by the Radbaz, Benjamin of Tudela, and Eldad HaDani are the same people today calling themselves Beta Israel?

b) What references do the Islamic and Christian sources you speak of say of of the Beta Israel, what dates are these Islamic and Christian documents and by what name do they reference the Beta Israel?

c) Where can the 1850 correspondence you reference be located and read, and what is the evidence of was written by the same group today calling themselves Beta Israel?

Benignuman: I’ll try to go through your older comments to address additional points, but if the Church only permitted Jews to use the New Testament would you argue that we should use it since we have nothing else? I’m pointing out that the Christian Old Testament is no less heretical than their New Testament.

What history is clearly documented (not presently orally testified) about this group’s religious history and practices and identification in the one hundred years prior to the formation of the State of Israel in 1948? And where have you seen such 1848-1948 sources?

The Christian Old Testament the they used as their Bible is not Torah.

Indeed, if a Jew were to ever have a copy of it, he would need to discard it.